Disposable pocketed manual refuse collector

ABSTRACT

A disposable pocketed manual refuse collector, in a normally flat form for convenient stacking in dispensing packet for distribution, comprises a permanently secured assembly of flexible sheet material members, namely, a palm covering member supporting on one face a finger cot member and on its opposite face a pocket member so related that a users fingers can be received in a glove between the finger cot member and the palm member for manipulating refuse into a pocket defined between the pocket member and the palm member opening forwardly under the fingers and with the edge of the pocket member providing a scoop. After the pocket has been loaded, the forwardly extending finger cot portion of the palm member can be inserted into the mouth of the pocket as a retaining closure.

United States Patent [1 1 Dahlke 1 Sept. 24, 1974 DISPOSABLE POCKETED MANUAL REFUSE COLLECTOR [76] Inventor: Grace L. Dahlke, 5212 W. Irving Park Rd., Chicago, 111, 60641 [22] Filed: Nov. 17, 1972 21 Appl. No.: 307,646

[52] US. Cl 294/1 R, 15/104.8, 294/25 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 12/1941 Wachs v 15/227 10/1968 Jones 294/25 X 7/1972 Klein 15/104.8

Primary ExaminerEvon C. Blunk Assistant Examiner-Johnny D. Cherry Attorney, Agent, or FirmHill, Gross, Simpson, Van Santen, Steadman, Chiara & Simpson [5 7] ABSTRACT A disposable pocketed manual refuse collector, in a normally flat form for convenient stacking in dispensing packet for distribution, comprises a permanently secured assembly of flexible sheet material members, namely, a palm covering member supporting on one face a finger cot member and on its opposite face a pocket member so related that a users fingers can be received in a glove between the finger cot member and the palm member for manipulating refuse into a pocket defined between the pocket member and the palm member opening forwardly under the fingers and with the edge of the pocket member providing a scoop. After the pocket has been loaded, the forwardly extending finger cot portion of the palm member can be inserted into the mouth of the pocket as a retaining closure.

9 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures 1 DISPOSABLE POCKETED MANUAL REFUSE COLLECTOR The present invention relates to a new and improved disposable pocketed manual refuse collector, and is more particularly concerned with such a device which will normally lie flat and permits stacking in a convenient compact service packet.

With urban residential density increasing, dog owners are confronted with growing hostility from home owners and landlords due to the nuisance of dog feces littering their property. An ever increasing number of communities are passing ordinances making it the dog owners responsibility to clean up their dogs droppings forthwith. Expedients and devices heretofore available have not satisfactorily met the need for dog owners walking their pets.

An important object of the present invention is to overcome the disadvantages, deficiencies, inefficiencies, shortcomings and problems inherent in prior expedients and structures and to provide a new and improved device especially suitable to assist dog owners inv maintaining sanitary public and private premises used by their dogs, although as will be apparent the device may have other similar uses as well.

Another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved disposable pocketed manual refuse collector.

A further object of the invention is to provide a low cost disposable device for the purpose indicated.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved refuse collector of the character indicated which can be conveniently packaged in a compact stack in a pocket size pack.

A yet further object of the invention is to provide a new and improved disposable pocketed manual refuse collector which can be produced by mass production techniques.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be readily apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing although variations and modifications may be effected without departing from the spirit and scope of the novel concepts embodied in the disclosure, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational and schematic view showing a device embodying features of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the device.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional detail view taken substantially along the line lIl-III of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a front elevational view of the device. FIG. 5 is a front elevation sectional view showing a plurality of the devices in flat stacked packet relation.

FIG. 6 is a sectional detail view taken substantially along the line VIVI of FIG. 2.

On reference to the drawing, a disposable pocketed manual refuse collector 10 comprises a permanently secured assembly of flexible sheet material members normally lying in flat face-to-face relation so that a number of the devices can be stacked in flat in a packet to facilitate carrying and dispensing for use. For ready manipulation. the device is of generally glove-like structure and is provided with a refuse-receiving pocket into which loading of refuse is facilitated by the projecting relation of the finger stall or cot portion of the device beyond the opening into the pocket so that refuse can be lifted or at least digitally maneuvered into the pocket by the fingers of the hand on which the device is carried for the purpose. Although the device may be made from paper, sheet plastic material of suitable type may be used and is indicated in the drawing. Principal considerations are that the material be thin, inexpensive, easily worked into the desired form with minimum effort and by mass-production techniques, that it be adequately flexible for the intended purpose while maintaining its integrity in use, and for sanitary reasons be moisture impervious, at least in those portions of the device which must necessarily come in contact with the refuse material to be pocketed and enveloped within the device and remaining impervious at least for a sufficient length of time to permit carrying of the loaded device as an envelope to a place or receptacle for garbage or trash disposal. In a desirable construction, the device 10 includes a palm covering member 11 of a width and length to be engaged over the full width and length of an at least average size palm of the hand, although if preferred different sizes can be provided for respectively mens and ladies hand sizes. The panel of sheet material for the member 11 should be fairly flexible so as to be readily manipulated, but of sufficient sustaining qualities to avoid flimsiness. Further, the panel member 11 should be moisture impervious for at least a reasonable length of time for sanitary reasons.

Supported on one face of the palm covering member 11 is a finger cot member 12 comprising a panel of sheet material which may be the same as the material of the palm covering member 1 l but need not necessarily be as impervious nor as thick since its function is merely to retain the device in position on the hand for manipulation. A preferred construction, the member 12 is of the same width as the member 11, and the members are permanently secured together along their opposite side and their front edges, and are free along the rear edge of the member 12 so as to provide a rearward entry between the members by the fingers of a manipulating hand. Preferably, the member 12 is shorter than the member 11 but long enough to substantially engage with the backs of the full lengths of the fingers of a manipulating hand to provide firm retentive cooperation with the fingers. Further, in order to facilitate manipulation, the front portion of the finger cot pocket structure provided by the members 11 and 12 is longitudinally divided as by means of a separation 13 along which the members are permanently secured, and whereby such front portion is divided into a pair of finger cots 14 to receive the fingers in divided relation for flexibility in maneuvering the device.

Supported by the opposite, lower face of the panel member 11 is a pocket member 15 comprising a panel of sheet material which is desirably heavier, that is of heavier gauge, than the member 11, but nevertheless sufficiently flexible to be flexed away from the member 11 by transverse bowing in use. At their rear and side margins the members 11 and 15 are coextensive and permanently secured together. At its front end, the member 15 has a free edge terminating rearwardly from the front margin of the member 11 and adapted to be flexibly deflected away from the member 11 to form a scoop, substantially as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, and thereby facilitating picking up of refuse such as dog feces which may be loaded into the pocket provided between the members 11 and 15 by combination scooping and digital thrusting maneuver as indicated by directional arrows in FIG. 1. By reason of flexibility of the material of the device it will readily yield to draw in laterally from a flat condition as shown in FIG. 5 into the condition as depicted in FIGS. 1 and 4 wherein the finger cot structure and the refuse pocket are deflected open to receive respectively the users hand and the refuse material.

Where the material of the device is paper the marginal joining seams of the panel members may be adhesively secured. Where the material of the panels is thermoplastic sheet, conventional heat sealed seams 17 may secure them together along the edges of the device.

In order to increase the capacity of the pocket provided between the members 11 and at the rear end of the device, expansion means are desirably provided to overcome the restrictive results of permanent securement of the members to one another. To this end, a tuck 18 (FIG. 6) is provided in the rear end portion of the member 11 inwardly from the secured rear edge and adapted to open in the manner of a gusset as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4 when the device is manipulated to contract laterally and to open the pocket for reception of contents. The extent of the tuck 18 is such as to enable expansion of the pocket to substantially equal capacity between its front and rear ends. In fabricating the device, the tuck 18 is formed as a reverse bend fold in the material of the panel member 11, with the rear end of the fold free from the rear attachment of the panels and with the fold tucked in between the panels 11 and 15 and the opposite ends of the fold coincident with the side edges of the panel assembly permanently secured with the remainder of the panel 11 to the panel 15, but the remainder of the fold free to open for expansion of the refuse receiving pocket. As best seen in FIGS. 1 and 2, for maximum capacity of the refuse receiving pocket the finger receiving sheath or cot panel member 12 extends substantially short of the rear end of the assembly, in this instance somewhat less than half-way from the front edge of the pocket member 15 to the rear edge thereof, whereby as the device is manipulated in loading the pocket, the rear end portion of the device can flex away from the users palm for maximum expansion of the rear end portion of the pocket as enabled by the tuck 18. On the other hand, for thorough retention of the device on the users hand, the length of the sheath or cot for the fingers is ample by extension substantially beyond the front end of the pocket member 15 to at least the same length as the sheath portion extends rearwardly from the front edge of the member 15. This also is an advantageous relationship in facilitating the use of the fingers in manipulating a article of refuse R into the pocket.

In the flat condition, the device 10 is, as previously mentioned and as shown in FIG. 5, readily stacked into a compact pack with a number of others of the devices for convenient dispensing as for example from a carton 19 which may have a flap-like cover 20 along one edge adapted to be opened for sliding of one of the devices 10 at a time from the pack as indicated at the right side of FIG. 5. Thereby a packet of the devices can be carried in the user's pocket and one of the devices 10 stripped from the packet as required.

After the refuse pocket of the collector device 10 has been loaded, the forwardly extending finger cot portion can be tucked into the pocket opening as a closure, and the device carried safely and hygienically to a disposal point such as a garbage or trash container. Carrying of the loaded device is facilitated by utilizing the rear end portion of the sheath panel member 12 as a convenient digitally engageable handle under which one or more hooked fingers of the hand can be engaged.

As will be observed, especially in FIG. 2, the sheet material panel members 11, 12 and 15 are of a character and arrangement to be assembled as parts of continuous webs of material fed from rolls of the material into a forming machine where the portions of the sheets to provide the members are brought together in laminar relation in their proper orientation, and heat sealing and separation of the completed devices effected in the manner customary with thennoplastic sheet material article manufacture on a continuous mass-production basis at fairly high speed and low production costs.

Although only two of the finger cots 14 are shown as adequate for the purpose, additional cot subdivisions may be provided if desired. On the other hand, the cot portion of the device may be free from subdivisions in the form of a sample mitten-like finger stall pocket to receive all fingers and the thumb of a hand. A little better manipulative control is experienced, however, where there is at least one cot indentation 13. Length of the cot portion may be longer than shown in the drawing, if preferred.

If the material selected for the scoop pocket member panel 15 is too stiff to be easily manipulated into efficient scoop form, one or more longitudinally extending creases may be formed in this panel adjacent but spaced inwardly from its side margins to facilitate the transverse pocket-forming drawing in or buckling thereof in use:

It will be understood that variations and modifications may be effected without departing from the spirit and scope of the novel concepts of this invention.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a disposable pocketed manual refuse collector, a permanently secured assembly of flexible sheet material members norrnally lying in flat face-to-face relation so that a number of the collectors can be stacked flat in a packet, the collector comprising:

a palm covering member;

a finger sheathing cot member supported on one face of said palm covering member and secured to said palm covering member along side and front margins and flexible away from said palm covering member to provide a rearward opening to receive a users fingers within a sheath between the members;

a pocket member supported on an opposite face of said palm covering member and secured to said side margins and along a rear margin of said palm covering member;

said pocket member having a free front edge from side-to-side between said margins and being flexibly deflectable away from said palm covering member to form therewith a pocket opening forwardly with said edge providing a scoop facilitating picking up of refuse and depositing of the same in the pocket by manipulation of the collector;

the secured front end portions of the palm covering member and the finger sheathing cot member extending substantially forwardly beyond the forward edge of said pocket member; and

said sheathing cot member being unattached relative to the palm covering member to a position spaced substantially forwardly from the rear end of said palm covering member, thereby permitting substantial relative flexing of the portion of the palm covering member extending rearwardly from the finger sheath cot member away from the palm of a hand carrying the collector to facilitate deflection of the pocket member into scoop form.

2. A collector according to claim 1, wherein said pocket member comprises stiffer material than said palm covering member.

3. A collector according to claim 1, wherein all of said members are of thermoplastic material and the secured margins are heat sealed seamsv 4. A collector according to claim 1, including a finger stall dividing indentation extends inwardly from the forward edges of said extending portions and short of said pocket member edge.

5. A collector according to claim 1, including pocket expansion means at the rear portion of said pocket.

6. A collector according to claim 5, wherein said pocket expansion means comprise a folded tuck in the rear portion of said palm covering member.

7. A collector according to claim 1, assembled in a stack with a plurality of additional similar collectors in flat condition, and means supporting the stack of collectors as a dispensing packet.

8. An assembly according to claim 7, wherein said means comprise a container having an openable closure at one side through which the collectors can be dispensed by sliding them from the stack one at a time.

9. In a disposable pocketed manual refuse collector, a permanently secured assembly of flexible sheet material members normally lying in flat face-to-face relation so that a number of the collectors can be stacked flat in a packet, the collector comprising:

a palm covering member;

a finger sheathing cot member supported on one face of said palm covering member and secured to said palm covering member along side and front margins and flexible away from said palm covering member to provide a rearward opening to receive a users fingers within a sheath between the members; and

a pocket member supported on an opposite face of said palm covering member and secured to said side margins and along a rear margin of said palm covering member; 1

said pocket member having a free front edge from side-to-side between said margins and being flexibly deflectable away from said palm covering member to form therewith a pocket opening forwardly with said edge providing a scoop facilitating picking up of refuse and depositing of the same in the pocket by manipulation of the collector;

said finger sheathing cot member having its rear edge spaced forwardly a substantial distance from the rear edge of the palm covering member so that the sheath is in the form of a partial glove and the rear portion of the palm covering member is flexibly movable away from the palm of a hand having fingers engaged in the partial glove;

said pocket member having its forward edge spaced substantially rearwardly from the forward end of the palm covering member for freedom of manipulation by fingers in the partial glove;

said palm member having a folded tuck in its rear portion providing for load capacity expansion of the rear portion of the pocket;

said front end glove portion of the palm covering member being adapted to be tucked into the front end of the loaded pocket as a retaining cover;

said rear end portion of the finger sheathing cot member being engageable as a carrying handle by fingers of the hand hooked thereunder whereby to facilitate carrying the loaded collector. 

1. In a disposable pocketed manual refuse collector, a permanently secured assembly of flexible sheet material members normally lying in flat face-to-face relation so that a number of the collectors can be stacked flat in a packet, the collector comprising: a palm covering member; a finger sheathing cot member supported on one face of said palm covering member and secured to said palm covering member along side and front margins and flexible away from said palm covering member to provide a rearward opening to receive a users fingers within a sheath between the members; a pocket member supported on an opposite face of said palm covering member and secured to said side margins and along a rear margin of said palm covering member; said pocket member having a free front edge from side-to-side between said margins and being flexibly deflectable away from said palm covering member to form therewith a pocket opening forwardly with said edge providing a scoop facilitating picking up of refuse and depositing of the same in the pocket by manipulation of the collector; the secured front end portions of the palm covering member and the finger sheathing cot member extending substantially forwardly beyond the forward edge of said pocket member; and said sheathing cot member being unattached relative to the palm covering member to a position spaced substantially forwardly from the rear end of said palm covering member, thereby permitting substantial relative flexing of the portion of the palm covering member extending rearwardly from the finger sheath cot member away from the palm of a hand carrying the collector to facilitate deflection of the pocket member into scoop form.
 2. A collector according to claim 1, wherein said pocket member comprises stiffer material than said palm covering member.
 3. A collector according to claim 1, wherein all of said members are of thermoplastic material and the secured margins are heat sealed seams.
 4. A collector according to claim 1, including a finger stall dividing indentation extends inwardly from the forward edges of said extending portions and short of said pocket member edge.
 5. A collector according to claim 1, including pocket expansion means at the rear portion of said pocket.
 6. A collector according to claim 5, wherein said pocket expansion means comprise a folded tuck in the rear portion of said palm covering member.
 7. A collector according to claim 1, assembled in a stack with a plurality of additional similar collectors in flat condition, and means supporting the stack of collectors as a dispensing packet.
 8. An assembly according to claim 7, wherein said means comprise a container having an openable closure at one side through which the collectors can be dispensed by sliding them from the stack one at a time.
 9. In a disposable pocketed manual refuse collector, a permanently secured assembly of flexible sheet material members normally lying in flat face-to-face relation so that a number of the collectors can be stacked flat in a packet, the collector comprising: a palm covering member; a finger sheathing cot member supported on one face of said palm covering member and secured to said palm covering member along side and front margins and flexible away from said palm covering member to provide a rearward opening to receive a users fingers within a sheath between the members; and a pocket member supported on an opposite face of said palm covering member and secured to said side margins and along a rear margin of said palm covering member; said pocket member having a free front edge from side-to-side between said margins and being flexibly deflectable away from said palm covering member to form therewith a pocket opening forwardly with said edge providing a scoop facilitating picking up of refuse and depositing of the same in the pocket by manipulation of the collector; said finger sheathing cot member having its rear edge spaced forwardly a substantial distance from the rear edge of the palm covering member so that the sheath is in the form of a partial glove and the rear portion of the palm covering member is flexibly movable away from the palm of a hand having fingers engaged in the partial glove; said pocket member having its forward edge spaced substantially rearwardly from the forward end of the palm covering member for freedom of manipulation by fingers in the partial glove; said palm member having a folded tuck in its rear portion providing for load capacity expansion of the rear portion of the pocket; said front end glove portion of the palm covering member being adapted to be tucked into the front end of the loaded pocket as a retaining cover; said rear end portion of the finger sheathing cot member being engageable as a carrying handle by fingers of the hand hooked thereunder whereby to facilitate carrying the loaded collector. 